Zhōu Wénwáng 周文王
Personal name Jī Chāng 姬昌, legendary founder-ancestor of the Zhōu 周 dynasty. Father of King Wǔ 武王, who conquered the Shāng 商; his royal title “Wén” 文 (“the Cultivated”) was conferred posthumously. In the standard Yì attribution (already in Xìcí xià 繫辭下) he is credited with the doubling of the eight trigrams of 伏羲 Fú Xī into the sixty-four hexagrams and the composition of the hexagram statements (guàcí 卦辭), while imprisoned at Yǒulǐ 羑里 by the last Shāng king Zhòu 紂. The attribution is the reason the work bears the dynastic name Zhōuyì 周易; it is not sustainable on internal evidence, but is the canonical pre-modern position. The line statements (yáocí 爻辭) are traditionally ascribed to his son 周公 Zhōu Gōng.